In recent years, there have been attempts to make use of various different kinds of geographic data by overlaying them for human""s judgment. For example, by overlaying an item of geographic data and an item of image data, characteristics of an objective district can be recognized in more detail. However, all the various kinds of geographic data are not always prepared In a unified standard. Formats describing the items of geographic data such as data formats are different from one another depending on an organization preparing the geographic data. In a case where such items of geographic data are used by overlaying them, it can be considered that the items of geographic data are stored in a single database by executing format transformation in advance. However, since each of the organizations preparing the geographic data individually updated the geographic data, the database of geographic data must be divided into individual databases in the organization basis. Therefore, the geographic data is generally stored in a plurality of databases. There are needs for unifying and using the items of data different in describing formats distributed in a network or the like, as described above. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.10-49409 proposes a method of making use of different kinds of data by unifying different kinds of databases through knowledge processing.
In order to unify and use the items of geographic data different in describing formats, it is necessary to define conditions of acquiring the Items of geographic data different in describing formats as knowledge, and to make use of the geographic data based on the knowledge. However, it is difficult for a single organization to prepare all of the various kinds of knowledge, and knowledge construction in regard to geographic data is performed by an organization understanding the geographic data used in enough detail or an organization frequently using specified geographic data. As a result, the knowledge bases are also stored in being distributed depending on skilled fields of geographic data treated by the organization preparing the geographic data. Therefore, a user of the geographic data must have information on where the knowledge to be required is in prior to using the knowledge in regard to the geographic data.
The present invention relates to a geographic information display control system which displays geographic information using items of geographic data stored in a plurality of geographic data storing means. An object of the present invention is to provide a geographic information display control system which is capable of easily displaying geographic information using the items of geographic data stored in the plurality of databases. The present invention comprises a plurality of geographic data acquiring means for instructing acquiring conditions to acquiring the geographic data stored in the plurality of databases, and a processing request receiver determining means determines based on an attribute of the geographic data to be displayed which geographic data acquiring means among the plurality of geographic data acquiring means is requested to execute processing. The geographic data is data including coordinate information, and is map data such as topological map, image data such as aerial photograph, satellite image, fixed point survey data in regard to precipitation, temperature and the like. The acquiring conditions means location of a database storing geographic data, procedure such as protocol acquiring the geographic data from the database, procedure converting describing format such as a data format, coordinate, language and the like.
It is preferable that both of the knowledge processing request receiver judging means and the geographical data acquiring condition judging means in accordance with the present invention use knowledge processing means deriving results by processing knowledge. In this case, there is an advantage of simple construction because both of the knowledge processing request receiver judging means and the geographical data acquiring condition judging means are executed using similar knowledge processing.
According to the present invention, the knowledge processing request receiver judging means request the geographic data acquiring condition judging means to execute knowledge processing corresponding to geographic data requested to be displayed by a user (requested geographic data), and instructs the user on conditions of acquiring the geographic data stored in the plurality of geographic data storing means. Therefore, the user can obtain required geographic data only by inquiring a single knowledge processing request receiver judging means without knowledge on where the searched geographic data is or without being aware of where the knowledge is prepared.